Day 176. Happy Friday! And also a nice break for us in the US, a 3 day weekend!
Oldfield Youth Club: this Hampton, UK, band features members of the great 80s pop band Last Party (I should feature them of course sometime soon!). They have released last month an EP called “The Glue/Splinters/Kids at the Summer Festivals” which actually has those three songs!
Chavales: this fun sounding electronic pop band from Spain is going to release their album “Tu Foto en el Techo” on September 18th on Elefant Records. It is coming out on a 10″ and at the moment we can preview 5 songs (out of 9) on Bandcamp.
Kindsight: now a band from Copenhagen formed by Nina, Søren, Anders and Johannes. They have just the one song on Bandcamp and it is called “Who Are You” and I have to say it is very nice. The band has already signed to Rama Lama Records and so I hope they put out some records out! Or at least more songs!
Scot Sprite: this solo project of Elise Cook from Exeter in the UK sounds great. Her latest song is called “It’s Summer and I Don’t Feel Like Smiling” and it is great. Catchy, with some cool guitar hooks!
The Slow Painters: some old-school jangle pop from the Oslo band, that after 16 years of forming is releasing their first album. The self-titled album is available now on LP format from Keepsecretrecords. 10 songs!
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Starlet, another great Swedish band from the late 90s and early 2000s. They wrote a song for March and it was called “Late March”. So yes this will cover my challenge. This song would not appear in their albums but on two compilations. The first one was on “The Sound of Young Sweden – Volume 3” released in 2002 by Labrador (LAB034) where they also contributed the song “I Want a Girl for My Birthday”. And the second one was on the US based label Secret Crush Records compilation CD “Stamp Collecting (For Beginners)” (SCRT01) in 2003.
I believe their first ever release was on a 1995 tape compilation called “Vermilion” that was released by Bliss Aquamarine (BLISS 011) with the song “Boom! Boom! Love”.
This first album came out in 1997 and it was called “From the One You Left Behind”. It was released by the US based label Parasol Records (PAR 027). It was released on both LP and CD with the same tracklisting. The A side had “Pin-Up”, “Love-Story of the Year”, “Wendy”, “Au-Pair” and “Afraid” while the B side had “Girlfriend”, “It Could Happen”, “As You Leave”, “Boom! Boom! Love!” and “Astrid”. 3 of these songs were recorded in 1995 at Beagle Studio and produced Martin Sventorp and the band, the rest were recorded at Studion in 1996 and were prorduced by Jörgen Stridh and the band. The art is credited to Lukas Möllersten, and among the credits we find that Anna Lundbom played flute on “Pin-up” and “Love-Story of the Year” and Per Ingvarsson played cello on “Wendy”.
In 1999 the band would release a 7″ on Parasol with two tracks, “Diary & Herself” on the A side and “Long Lost Love” on the B side. The art is again credited to Lukas Möllersten and the photography to H Mårtensson. The engineer for these two songs recorded in the summer of 1999 was Jörgen Andersson.
The Malmö band would return with a new album in 2000. It was called “Stay On My Side” and would be released on LP and CD by Parasol (PAR 054) in the US and on CD by Labrador (LAB013) in Sweden, Inane (INANE03) in Spain and Philter Records (PRPH-2020) in Japan. The 10 songs were recorded and mixed at Emmy Studio in Kristianstad in July and August of 1999 with Jörgen Andersson as the engineer. The songs were “I’m Home”, “Homewater”, “At Least in my Heart”, “In the Disco” and “Internal Affairs” on the A side and “Scent of You”, “Diary and Herself”, “Silver Sportscar”, “Moving On” and “Friends” on the flipside. Art again by Lukas Möllersten and the photography throughout the booklet is credited to first names, many of them. Here I believe is the first release where the band members’ names appear, Anders Baeck on drums, guitar and percussion, Henrik Mårtensson on guitar, bass and vocals, Joakim Ödlund on guitar and Jonas Färm on vocals, guitar, bass and vocals. It is also worth mentioning that the Japanese CD had a bonus track, “Long Lost Love”.
That same year, 2000, the band would contribute “Diary & Herself” to the compilation “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen Volume 1” (PAR-PROMO 001). They would also give away another song to Parasol the next year, 2001, on their compilation “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen Volume 4” (PAR-PROMO 004). This song was called “When Sun Falls On My Feet”.
In 2002 Labrador would promote the band with a CDR that had two songs, “When Sun Falls On My Feet” and “Stop and Let it Go”. Not sure how many copies of these were made or who the label sent to them. Seems rare. But it makes sense, the band would release their third and last album that year, “When Sun Falls On My Feet”. This release would be out on Parasol Records (PAR 073) in the US, Philter Records (PRPH-2046) in Japan, Labrador (LAB021) in Sweden and interestingly enough on Rostok Records (RRCD-307) in Ukraine. All were CD releases.
The album would include 10 songs, “Malmö”, “With Sand in My Eyes”, “When the Sun Falls on My Feet”, “Make that Stone Beat Like a Heart Again”, “Not Alone”, “Sunshine”, “To Sleep This Evil Day Away”, “And How it Breaks”, “Christine” and “Stop and Let it Go”. Obviously the Japanese version had an extra song, “Orbit”. The album was mixed and recorded at Emmy Studio and mastered by Thomas Eberger at Cutting Room. The engineer was Jörgen Andersson who contributed on some keyboards as well. Other guest musician was Linda Bykvist (from The Bustups) who played trumpet.
That same year their song “Stop and Let It Go (demo)” would appear on the CD compilation “Try a Little Happiness” that came alongside that legendary fanzine by my friend Jörgen Svensson. But that wasn’t all, their tracks “When Sun Falls On My Feet” and “I’m Home” would be featured in the Labrador compilation “Labrador Kingsize Vol# 1” (LAB020.
In 2003 they would appear on “Today’s Best Music” a CD compilation released in Greece by Ποπ + Ροκ, a monthly music magazine. They would contribute the song “Christine”. They would also get some love in France, on the compilation “I am A Victim of this Song” released by Baka-Poi another fanzine. The song they would give away would be “When the Sun Fall on my Feet”.
In 2007 Labrador would release their CD boxset “A Complete History of Popular Music” (LAB100). The songs that the band would contribute would be the same as the last Labrador compilation, “I’m Home” and “When Sun Falls on My Feet”.
Then a compilation I had no clue about but looks amazing! “Olle Eksell Meets Labrador” was a CD comp released in 2007 by Rambling Records in Japan (RBCS-2241). The band appears here with the track “The Sun and the Rainfall”. I love Olle Eksell I must say so I am very curious about this one.
Then that same year in Taiwan’s Magnum Music’s “A Place in My Heart” (MAGCD35) the band would contribute the song “And How it Breaks”.
Ok now we know quite a bit about their releases. Where are they know you may ask. Well, to be fair they all have been in many bands. Important bands. For example Henrik had been in Pallers, Poprace and The Legends. Joakim had been in Acid House Kings, Poprace, Double Dan, Ambassadeurs and in Poppyfields (I really want to hear their tape!). Jonas was in the first album by The Legends. Anders had been in The Bustups.
But yeah, that sounds like bands from the past. What about today? What are they doing now. That is a fair question. Also I haven’t been able to find any info about gigs. Did they play many? Outside of Sweden? What about unreleased tracks?
Labdrador though has some fun and interesting details on their website. Their is a bio that says: Recognized as part of the »Åhus Scene« that was designated by the Swedish pop press as “the Mecca of Swedish wimp pop”, Starlet comes from the same region as Club 8, Acid House Kings, Pop Race, and the Leslies. And, lead vocalist Jonas Farm’s hometown, Malmö, has been chosen as »the pop-town of year 2000« by the nation’s Swedish Radio. Jonas Farm describes his contribution to the album’s songwriting this way: “When I learned to play the guitar, about 1992, I tried really hard to make songs that sounded like Popsicles’ »Laquer«, but it didn’t work at all, and I found out that it was a stupid idea trying to sound like another band. Then I got every Beatles-album and made the same mistake. Now I just follow a feeling when I write a song, and subconsciously fragments of my influences of the time trickles through, mixing with me and the sound of me.
The Åhus scene. How was that? Would love to hear more about it. Anecdotes and such…
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Listen
Starlet – I’m Home
